96 
DESCRIPTION OF MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
nules numerous, short-stalked and obliquely triangular-ob- 
long, entire on the lower margin, from which the veins all 
proceed, and cleft and fruit-bearing on the other. Fruit-dots 
marginal. The fronds are used. 
Asplenium Filix-fcemina, Bernh. The Female Fern. Frond 
1-3° high, ovate-oblong or broadly lanceolate, twice pin- 
nate; pinnse lanceolate, numerous; pinnules confluent on 
the secundary rhachis by a narrow margin, oblong and 
doubly serrate, or elongated and pinnately incised with cut- 
toothed segments. Indusium delicate, curved, often cross- 
ing the vein and attached to both sides of it, thus becoming 
veniform or shaped like a horse-shoe. Moist ground. The 
most abundant fern of our woods. The rootstock. It is on 
the list of some drug-houses, but is seldom used. 
Aspidium marginale, Swartz. Shield Fern. Frond ever- 
green, smooth, thickish and almost coriaceous, twice pin- 
nate, ovate-oblong in outline, 1-2° long; pinnae lanceolate, 
acuminate, slightly broadest above the base ; pinnules ob- 
long or oblong scythe-shaped, crowded, obtuse or pointed, 
entire or crenately toothed. Stipes very chaffy ; fruit-dots 
close to the margin, round, borne on the back of the veins. 
Indusium flat, orbicular and peltate at the center. Princi- 
pally in mountains, Cumberland and Alleghanies, where one 
can never get out of sight of it. It is equally efficacious as 
an anthelmintic as the Asp. Filix mas of Europe and the 
northern limits of the United States. The rootstock is col- 
lected. 
Usmunda regalis, L. Buckhorn Fern. Royal Fern. The 
largest and most showy of our ferns, producing two very 
different looking kinds of fronds. The fertile fronds are 
destitute of chlorophyll, very much contracted, bearing on 
the margins of the narrow, rhacliis-like divisions short-ped- 
icelled and naked sporangia; these are globular, thin and 
reticulated, large, opening by a longitudinal cleft into 2 
valves, and bearing near the apex a small patch of thick- 
ened oblong cells, the rudiment of a transverse ring. The 
